Genus TILIA, L. (Basswood.) 



Fig. 9. Basswood, American Linden, Whitewood, Lime 



Tree, Bee Tree. T. Americana, L. 



Leaves, SIMPLE ; ALTERNATE ; EDGE SOMEWHAT IRREGU- 

 LARLY VERY SHARP-TOOTHED. 

 Outline, rounded, often very one-sided. Apex, pointed. 



Base, strongly heart-shaped. 



Leaf, usually about three to four inches wide, four to five 

 inches long ; sometimes much larger ; rather thick, 

 very smooth and shining above ; with small tufts of 

 reddish hairs in the angles of the ribs below ; and 

 often with the ribs themselves hairy. 

 Bark of the trunk very thick ; on the young branches 



dark brown. 



Fruit, gray-downy, ovate, the size of small peas, clustered 

 on a long stem of which the lower half is joined to 

 half the length of a narrow, leaf-like bract, usually 

 with a tapering base. 



Found, in rich woods, from British America southward to 

 Virginia and along the Alleghany Mountains and 

 westward. 



A straight-trunked tree, sixty to eighty feet high (often 

 unbranching to half its height) and two to four feet in 

 diameter. Its very tough inner bark is used for mats and 

 coarse rope. The wood is white and soft and clear of 

 knots. It is much used for wooden ware, in cabinet-work, 

 and for the panelling of carriages, though now less es- 

 teemed than the tulip tree for these uses, owing to its 

 liability to crack in bending. 



